HOMICIDAL MANIAC

By VINCENT CANBY

Published: January 31, 1981

Good sense, if not heaven, should protect anyone who thinks he likes horror films from wasting a price of admission on ''Maniac,'' a movie that shows how an aging, pot-bellied maniac slices up young women of no great intelligence.

The setting is New York City, the time is frequently night, and the narrative shape seems to have been borrowed from an early pornographic film.

There are sequences in which the maniac pursues a model, a hooker, a nurse, a pair of young lovers on a beach and a pair of not-so-young lovers in the back seat of an automobile.

William Lustig is the film's director, and Joe Spinell, who plays the maniac, also collaborated on the screenplay (with C.A. Rosenberg) and wrote the original story.

He is terrible in all capacities, though his performance is more immediately objectionable. Watching him act like a psychopathic killer with a mommy-complex is like watching someone else throw up.

The Cast

MANIAC, directed by William Lustig; screenplay by C.A. Rosenberg and Joe Spinell; story by Mr. Spinell; director of photography, Robert Lindsay; edited by Lorenzo Marinelli; music by Jay Chattaway; produced by Andrew Garroni and Mr. Lustig; released by the Analysis Film Corporation. At the Cinerama I, Broadway and West 47th Street; 86th Street 2, at Lexington Avenue, and other theaters. Running time: 91 minutes. This film is not rated.